Clothespin



'I. HARTER 'CLOTHESPIN April 14, 1942.

- Filed Sept. 5, 1940 ,INVEETOR 1M Patented Apr. 14, 1942 UNITED STATESPATENT OFFICE.

CLOTHESPIN Isaac Hatter, Akron, Ohio Application September 5, 1940,Serial No. 355,419

4 Claims.

This invention relates to clothespins, and aims to provide an improvedclothespin made of a single piece of wood or other suitable materialwhich, even when made of the same size and shape as the conventionalwooden clothespin and of the same kind of wood, shall have greaterresistance to splitting from the crotch under a force tending to spreadthe legs of the pin apart such as occurs in the ordinary use of the pin,and which has, therefore, a longer average useful life, and which shallbe only little more costly to make.

The conventional single-piece wooden clothespins of approximatelycylindrical form and slotted longitudinally from one end forapproximately two-thirds of their length have a sawcut crotch which hasright angle corners both in the plane of the slot and transverselythereto. Such pins, having the grain of the wood running lengthwise ofthe pin, are very liable to split in use under the spreading strain onthe legs resulting from forcing the legs over fabric looped over theclothes line. It has been proposed to reduce this liability to splittingby curving the crotch in one direction. This, however, makes the pinsonly slightly less liable to split when used.

In accordanc with the present invention, the crotch of the pin is madeconvexly curved, and most desirably semi-circular, in the plane of theslot, and concavely curved, and most desirably semi-circular, at rightangles to said plane. Careful tests have shown that suchdoublecurve-crotch pins have a much higher resistance to splitting undera spreading force applied to the legs than the conventionalsquare-crotch pins of the same shape, size and material.

The accompanying drawing shows a clothespin of the conventional shapehaving a crotch shaped according to the invention. In said drawing:

Fig. 1 shows the pin in side elevation looking in the direction of theplane of the slot between the legs; and

Fig. 2 is a section taken on line 22 of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawing, the clothespin illustrated is made of a singlepiece of wood or other suitable material of the conventional generallycylindrical shape, having a body portion Ill with the usual head I l atone end thereof, and slotted longitudinally from the other end forapproximately two-thirds of its length. The drawing shows the pin of theusual length of about 4% inches with the greatest diameter at the bodyportion of a little over /5 of an inch, the slot l2 being as of an inchwide and flared outward in the usual manner at and near the open end ofthe pin. The crotch of the slot is convexly semicircular in the plane ofthe slot, as appears in Fig. 2, and concavely semi-circular at rightangles to said plane, or across the slot, as shown by Fig. 1. Allweakening sharp angles at the crotch are thus avoided, and stressesresulting from a spreading force applied to the legs of the pin, insteadof being concentrated at certain points as in a square-cut crotch, aredistributed by the double curve form of the crotch, thereby greatlylessening the liability to splitting.

The new clothespins with their double-curve crotch are, when made ofwood, readily produced by cutting the slot by means of a saw having aconvex semi-circular cutting edge and by rotating the pins in the planeof the saw through on a radius equal to one-half the diameter of the pinat the end of the slot-cutting operation.

While full semi-circular curvature of the crotch in both directions hasbeen found most desirable for attaining the object of the invention,that is, reduction of liability of the pins to splitting, while at thesame time being readily produced as above stated, much advantage may besecured with convex and concave curvatures which are not fullysemi-circular or which'are not an arc of a circle, and it may be thatsomewhat greater resistance to splitting might be obtained by using somecurve other than an arc of a circle for one or both of the curvatures ofthe crotch. Obviously, the shape of the clothespin as a whole and thesize of the pin may be varied substantially.

What is claimed is:

l. A clothespin formed of a piece of material slotted lengthwise fromone end and having a crotch extending diametrically acrossthe piecewhich is convexly semi-circular in the plane of the slot and concavelysemi-circular at right angles to said plane.

2. A clothespin formed of a piece of material slotted lengthwise fromone end and having a crotch extending diametrically across the piecewhich is convexly curved in the plane of the slot and concavely curvedat right angles to said plane.

3. A clothespin formed of a piece of wood slotted lengthwise from oneend' and having a crotch extending diametrically across the piece whichis convexly semi-circular in the plane of the slot and concavelysemi-circular at right angles to said plane.

4. A clothespin formed of a piece of wood slotted lengthwise from oneend and having a crotch extending diametrically across the piece whichis convexly curved in the plane of the slot and concavely curved atright angles to said plane.

I ISAAC HARTER.

